In U.S. application Ser. No. 619,137, filed June 11, 1984 and entitled METHOD FOR FIXING A MUD FLAP TO A MOTOR VEHICLE, A MUD FLAP AND DEVICE FOR PERFORMING THE METHOD, the present applicant has disclosed a spacer for an automobile mud flap, preferably made of a molded plastic or rubber, wherein the spacer is in a generally L-shape configuration. The spacer, therefore, has, generally, two legs and, in part, functions to provide a neat appearance for the attachment of the mud flap, in that the spacer provides a smooth transition between the mud flap and the car body adjacent to the fender fold. To achieve adaptation of the spacer to various fender fold configurations, the positioning of the spacer, with respect to the mud flap, can be varied within limits to accommodate different fender contours. Thus, that spacer makes it possible to produce a relatively flat mud flap having a bearing rib disposed at the transition of the vehicle body and the mud flap. Due to the ability to vary the positioning of the spacer, with respect to the mud flap, the spacer can give reasonably neat appearances to a variety of fender fold configurations. Substantial variations in positioning of the spacer, however, are not possible with mud flaps having such bearing ribs in a permanent disposition.
While this spacer provides a very important advantage to the art, it does suffer from the disadvantage that the degree of variation of the position of the spacer, with respect to the mud flap, is limited because the spacer must be positioned on the bearing ribs of the mud flap, which ribs are within a limited area of the mud flap. As a result thereof, conforming the spacer to wider varieties of fender fold configurations is not practical.
It would be of a decided advantage in the art to provide such a spacer which is not so limited in its ability to accommodate a wide variety of contours of fenders and configurations of fender folds.